Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is one of the most important oil crops worldwide, and has a large planting area in Yangtze River basin. As one of the four major edible oils, rapeseed oil plays a fundamental role in human life activities. In addition, with the increasing global demand for rapeseed oil, raising oilseed rape production becomes an important direction of rapeseed breeding. As one of the most widely distributed secondary metabolites in nature, flavonoids play a critical part in plant growth and development. Flavonoids can not only improve stress tolerance, but also regulate various physiological activities of plants. However, the role of flavonoids in determining seed oil contents and the evolutionary mechanism of how pigments accumulate in seed coats remain elusive. In this review, we highlighted the metabolism, distribution, and function of flavonoids and its inhibiting effects on fatty acid accumulation in rapeseed. Understanding the molecular mechanism of flavonoids affecting fatty acid accumulation can provide a theoretical basis for increasing oil content of seeds by regulating the allocation of carbon sources in the future.

CRISPR/Cas system is an emerging gene-editing technology, which can knock out multiple genes at multiple specific loci. Compared with other gene editing systems including ZFNs (zinc finger nucleases) and TALENs (transcription activator-like effector nucleases), CRISPR/Cas system possesses distinguishing advantages including higher targeting efficiency, easier to design and operate, and less time and labor, and thereby is widely applied in microbial, animal and plant genome editing researches. The CRISPR/Cas system was initially found in eubacteria and archaebacteria to be an adaptive immune system that is used to degrade exogenous viruses or plasmids. Multiple CRISPR/Cas systems have been so far reported. CRISPR is a DNA fragment with clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, which interacts with Cas protein and consequently edits the genome. The main action mechanism of CRISPR/Cas system is that matured crRNA (CRISPR-derived RNA) is hybridized with tracrRNA (trans-activating RNA) to form a single guide RNA (sgRNA), and thereby guides Cas endonuclease to cut double-strand DNA within a 20-nt short sequence, which is complementary with crRNA. Such targeted double-strand breaks activate two distinct DNA repair mechanisms including non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and homology-directed repair (HDR). The NHEJ mechanism is easy to induce deletion or insertion mutation at the cleavage site. Thus, different sgRNAs can be designed for different target sites to perform gene editing at specific sites. This review mainly focuses on the progress and action mechanisms of CRISPR/Cas9 system and its application in a variety of important crops, and finally makes some prospects about low frequency off-target phenomenon in CRISPR/Cas9 operation and its future applications.

Brassica vegetables are rich in glucosinolates, a group of secondary metabolites, which is related to flavor, quality, resistance and anticancer activity. In addition, they also play a vital role in plant defense against pathogens and herbivores. In this review, we briefly elucidated the biosynthetic and degradation pathway of glucosinolate, and highlighted the effects of different postharvest treatments, such as cooling storage, controlled atmosphere storage, modified atmosphere packaging, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) treatment, as well as processing and cooking methods on compositions and contents of glucosinolate profiles and nutritional quality in Brassica vegetables. Particularly, from the perspective of dynamic equilibrium of glucosinolate metabolism, we analyzed the mechanism of regulating glucosinolate components and contents, and also discussed how to maintain the contents of favorable glucosinolate profiles and nutritional quality in Brassica vegetable products during postharvest period.

J-domain proteins, with a molecular mass of around 40 kDa, are a family of proteins that contain a signature J or J-like domain. Serving as co-chaperones of Hsp70s, J-domain proteins play critical roles in nascent protein folding, maintaining of correct protein conformations, translocation of proteins across cellular membranes, degradation of misfolded proteins, and assembly and disassembly of protein complexes. Due to great progresses have been made in J-domain proteins of plants, this review briefly introduces the structure and classification of J-domain proteins, mainly highlights their functional roles and action mechanisms in plants, and finally gives a prospect of this field.

Essential nutrient elements for plants, including nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and zinc (Zn), are involved in regulation of many physiological and biochemical processes in plants, which are critical factors directly determining yield and quality of crops. However, excessive subcellular accumulation of these essential nutrient elements will be toxic for plant cells or the whole plant. Thus, uptake and transport processes of these nutrients must be tightly regulated at the cellular level. Focused on Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa, this review briefly summarized the types, physical and chemical properties of nutrient element transporters, and elaborated their biological functions and action mechanisms in higher plants, including N transporter families (NPF, NRT2, CLC, SLAC/SLAH, and AMT), P transporter families (PHT1, PHT2, PHT3, PHT4, and PHT5), K transporter families (KT/HAK/KUP, HKT, CHX, and KEA), and Zn transporter families (ZIP, CDF, and P1B-type ATPase). Endocytosis from the plasma membrane (PM) is an important route for uptake of extracellular materials and regulation of PM-resident receptors or transporters, so we introduced potential roles of transporter endocytosis in uptake and transport of nutrient elements in plant cells. In the end, we made prospects of future studies on functional roles and regulation mechanisms of transporters, providing new ideas and strategies for efficient utilization of nutrients and genetic improvement of quality in crops.

To investigate the long-term effects of zinc-silicon (Zn-Si) on mineral element translocation from root to shoot of rice under cadmium (Cd) stress, we performed this experiment using two rice genotypes (Xiushui 110 and HIPJ 1) with eight combination treatments of three Si levels (0, 5 and 15 μmol/L Na₂SiO₃·9H₂O), three Zn levels (0, 1 and 10 μmol/L ZnSO₄·7H₂O) and two Cd levels (0 and 15 μmol/L CdCl₂). Data on plant biomass, photosynthesis, antioxidant enzyme activity, lipid peroxidation and mineral element concentrations were analyzed. The combination treatments of Cd (15 μmol/L) and Si (15 μmol/L) or Zn (10 μmol/L) resulted in higher shoot height and root length in both the genotypes as compared with the Cd (15 μmol/L) treatment. Analysis of dry mass showed that the sole Zn alleviation was more effective on biomass increase than the sole Si in both the genotypes. The malondialdehyde (MDA) content in leaf dropped across all alleviation treatments in both the genotypes; Xiushui 110 had higher overall leaf catalase activity than HIPJ 1. The sole Zn and Si and the Zn-Si alleviation treatments reduced Cd translocation factor (TF) from root to shoot in HIPJ 1 but not in Xiushui 110. Analysis of TFs showed that Cd significantly reduced the movement of elements such as Ca, Mn and Mg. Zn alone treatment increased plant growth more than Si alone and Zn-Si treatments. However, Zn-Si treatment was not effective on improving mineral element uptake in Cd stressed plants.

According to the inhibitory effect of exogenous auxin analog (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 2,4-D) treatment on primary root growth, 188 independent candidate mutant lines were screened out from 60Co-γ mediated radiation mutagenesis pool in rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar“Huang Huazhan”. After secondary screening and identification, four auxin-resistant root mutant lines were finally confirmed and designated as Osarr1-1 (Oryza sativa auxin resistant root 1-1), Osarr2-1, Osarr3-1, and Osarr3-2 mutants; among them, the Osarr3-2 was segregated from the Osarr3-1 mutant population and displayed albino seedling phenotype. The results showed that, in the absence of 2,4-D, the number of adventitious roots in Osarr3-1 was significantly higher than that in the wild type, whereas other mutants had similar number of adventitious roots with the wild type. Except the Osarr1-1 mutant exhibited shorter adventitious root phenotype, the others were similar to the wild type. The lateral root number of Osarr3-1 was more than that of the wild type, whereas Osarr3-2 was less; the other mutants were parallel to the wild type. Lateral root elongation of Osarr1-1 and Osarr3-2 was less than the wild type, whereas the other two mutants were similar to the wild type. Under the treatment of 2,4-D, the number and elongation of adventitious roots in these four types of mutants were all significantly higher than the wild type; except for the Osarr3-2, all the other mutants displayed higher lateral root numbers relative to the wild type. Furthermore, the lateral root elongation of all the mutants was much higher than the wild type. The above results show that the root system, including primary root, lateral roots, and adventitious roots in the obtained mutants, displays higher auxin resistance, which provides good genetic resources for deeply revealing regulation mechanism of root growth and development in rice.

In order to elucidate the effects of carbon dioxide (CO₂) enrichment on fruit development and quality of cherry tomato, a new strategy of CO₂ enrichment by composting crop residues and animal manures directly in the tunnel was used on the fruits of“Shentong”, a variety of cherry tomato collected at four typical developmental stages. Then the effects of CO₂ enrichment on fruit development, as well as visual, flavor and nutritional quality of cherry tomato fruits at typical developmental stages were investigated. The results showed that CO₂ enrichment promoted the development of vertical diameter and transverse diameter, and mass of cherry tomato fruits. As for flavor quality, the contents of soluble solids, soluble sugar, and titratable acidity, as well as the ratio of sugar to acid were significantly higher in the CO₂ enrichment group than the control group. Furthermore, the CO₂ enrichment significantly increased the contents of nutrients such as vitamin C and carotenoids, thus improving the nutritional quality of cherry tomato fruits. In summary, CO₂ enrichment promotes the growth, and improves the exterior, flavor and nutritional quality of cherry tomato fruits. Therefore, CO₂ enrichment is of great application prospect in cherry tomato production.

To investigate the effects of glucose and methyl jasmonate on glucosinolate accumulation, and the contents of other antioxidants, such as vitamin C, anthocyanin and total phenols, as well as total antioxidant capacity of Chinese kale sprouts, we conducted exogenous treatments with 0.03 g/mL glucose and 5 μmol/L methyl jasmonate. The results showed that 5 μmol/L methyl jasmonate alone significantly enhanced the
biosynthesis of progoitrin, sinigrin, gluconapin, glucoerucin, and gluconapoleiferin, as well as all kinds of indolic glucosinolates. However, when methyl jasmonate was supplied with 0.03 g/mL glucose, the contents of all kinds of aliphatic and indolic glucosinolates were increased markedly, including glucoiberin and glucoraphanin, which were elevated by 63% and 52% compared with the control, respectively; and furthermore the accumulation of 4-methoxy glucobrassicin (4-OMGBS) was promoted significantly, with a 50% increase in comparison with the control. In addition, the anthocyanin content in Chinese kale sprouts was remarkably elevated under the combined treatment of glucose and methyl jasmonate. These results suggest that the combined application of 0.03 g/mL glucose and 5 μmol/L methyl jasmonate may effectively improve health- promoting compounds and quality of Chinese kale sprouts.

To reveal the biological role of aluminum (Al)-tolerant mechanism in barley Al toxicity, the Altolerant cultivar Humai 8 and Al-sensitive cultivar Shengxian awnless six-rowed barley (Shengxian 6) were used as experimental materials, and treated with different concentrations of AlCl₃ (0, 50, 100 and 150 μmol/L). The active absorbing area, cell membrane permeability, contents of free proline and malondialdehyde (MDA), and the
activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), Ca²⁺-ATPase, and Mg²⁺-ATPase in primary roots of barley were examined to analyze different effects of Al toxicity on the primary roots of two barley cultivars with different Al-tolerance. The results showed that, compared with the control, the effects of Al toxicity on multiple physiological indexes displayed similar changes in the two barley cultivars with different Altolerance; however, the inhibitory effects of Al toxicity on the active absorbing area, cell membrane permeability, and activities of Ca²⁺-ATPase and Mg²⁺-ATPase in Al-tolerant cultivar Humai 8 were lower than those in Al-sensitive cultivar Shengxian 6, and the activity levels of SOD and CAT in Humai 8 were higher than those in Shengxian 6. By contrast, the contents of free proline and MDA in Shengxian 6 were higher than those in Humai 8. These results suggest that Al-tolerant and Al-sensitive barley cultivars differentially respond to Al toxicity at the physiological level, revealing the role of Al-tolerant mechanisms in barley Al toxicity, and providing a new insight into dissecting Al toxicity and Al-tolerant mechanisms in barley.

We analyzed the yield, quality and disease resistance traits of fresh maize cultivars from regional testing in Zhejiang Province from 2010 to 2016. The results showed that the yield, quality and disease resistance traits of the 165 fresh maize cultivars were significantly different between cultivars and years. In the yield trait, the variation coefficients of sweet corn varied from 3.7% (growth period) to 17.8% (ear height), whereas the variation coefficients of waxy corn varied from 2.2% (growth period) to 11.5% (1 000-grain mass). In the quality trait, the variation coefficients of sweet corn varied from 2.6% (total score) to 6.4% (flavor), whereas the variation coefficients of waxy corn were from 1.9% (smell) to 8.4% (flavor). All the examined maize cultivars exhibited low resistance to corn borer, and no high resistance cultivars were found. Moreover, their resistance to southern leaf blight was low, but the percentage of cultivars with the southern leaf blight resistance had a tendency of increase. By contrast, the total level of resistance to northern leaf blight was generally good. No cultivars with high resistance to sheath blight were found, but the resistance to sheath blight was improved in recent years. The total level of resistance to stem rot was good, and furthermore the percentage of stem rot resistant cultivars was increased continually. These results suggest that the resistance level to main diseases and insect pests of fresh maize cultivars in Zhejiang Province is relatively low, but has a growing trend; the comprehensive resistance level is also constantly improved. Most of the cultivars possess a high-yield trait (≈1×104 kg/hm²), medium quality (total score of 84-86) and medium resistance level. Combined the analysis of regional test data with the actual production of Zhejiang Province, some specific objectives of fresh maize breeding are put forward in this study.

The Lentinula edodes 808, Pleurotus eryngii kE015 and Auricularia auricula-judae 916 were used as materials to investigate the effects of different storage time on polysaccharide content and its protective effect on HepG2 cells under oxidative stress. The results showed that the extraction rate of Lentinula edodes 808 was significantly higher than that of the other two kinds of edible fungi, and the yield of polysaccharide in Lentinula edodes 808, stored for three years was the highest with (6.92±0.18)% . However, the antioxidant effect of Lentinula edodes 808 stored for one year was better than the other years. The polysaccharides extracted from Pleurotus eryngii kE015 stored for two or three years had a better effect on the survival rate of HepG2 cells after oxidative injury than the other storage time. The highest survival rate of HepG2 cells reached (99.37±8.23)% at the polysaccharide concentration of 1 mg/mL and storage for three years, which was 1.91 times of the control group, indicating that the polysaccharide extracted from Pleurotus eryngii kE015 could effectively reduce the H₂O₂-induced oxidative damage of HepG2 cells. Consistently, the polysaccharide extracted from Pleurotus eryngii kE015 significantly increased the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) level in HepG2 cells after oxidative injury. In the Auricularia auricula-judae 916, one-year storage had the highest polysaccharide yield, while the four-year storage displayed the highest antioxidant activity. This study provides some references for optimizing storage time and conditions, and obtaining better production process in production of edible fungi such as Lentinula edodes, Pleurotus eryngii and Auricularia auricula-judae.

To understand potential mechanisms involved in sphingolipids and their metabolic precursors, longchain bases (LCBs)-mediated stress response, we cloned rice LCB genes that encode serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT), which is the key enzyme of sphingolipid de novo biosynthesis. The full-length cDNAs of three LCB1 and three LCB2 genes were amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The lengths of
the deduced LCB proteins ranged from 481 to 497 amino acid residues. Bioinformatics and comparative studies revealed that the polypeptide proteins had high homology in a large number of species from bacteria to humans. In rice, we found that OsLCB2a1 expression was up-regulated when infested by brown planthopper (BPH). Compared with other varieties, gene expression levels were higher in BPH-resistant varieties such as Mudgo and IR64. Gene expression was negatively correlated with BPH-resistant scores. Among different plant parts of rice varieties, gene expression was found to be significantly increased in the leaf blade of IR64 and the leaf sheath of Taiping. The mRNA level of OsLCB2a1 was found to be high at the maximum tillering stage of BPH-resistant varieties, suggesting that this gene may play a role in the vegetative stages of rice.

To effectively restore swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus) resources in the Dongtou sea area of Zhejiang Province, we released a total of 1 894×104 juvenile swimming crabs in 2014, and conducted a fishery resource investigation and social survey before and after releasing. According to the data, the changes of resource density and spatial distribution of swimming crabs in the Dongtou sea area were analyzed, and the reproduction capacity of the natural group was assessed using intrinsic rate of increase before and after releasing; therefrom the proportion of releasing group was calculated. Meanwhile, on the basis of body size distribution, the percentage of 0 aged group of swimming crabs was calculated by virtual population analysis, and the recapture rate and economic benefits were estimated to assess releasing effect quantitatively. The results showed that the resource densities were 163 and 7 974 individuals/km² before and after releasing, respectively, showing a trend of spread to surrounding sea areas after releasing. The 0 aged group of swimming crabs and releasing population represented 61.3% and 24.2% of the total catch, respectively, and the recapture rate of releasing population was 3.30%. It was estimated to contribute fishery catch yield of 39.6 t and economic benefit of 158.4×10⁴ Chinese yuan. In summary, stock enhancement can restore swimming crab resources to some extent and increase production and revenue. This study suggests that in the near future, it is proper to carry out stock enhancement of swimming crab in the Dongtou sea area to effectively utilize its marine resources and increase fishery productivity.